Nice Things Said

Back Cover Blurb

"The Amazon is quite a sight from the air, isn't it, Professor?" Jaco said.

"Please call me Eric. It's deceiving, that's for sure. From this altitude it looks peaceful. But it's a steaming wilderness filled with plants and animals unfamiliar to botanists and zoologists. Let your guard down, and the jungle will kill you. Once you're in the underbrush, you can only be assured of one thing. There is something there that will want to take a bite out of you, sting you, or eat you." Eric glanced in Canstancia's direction. "And we'd also be facing the uncertainty as to whether the natives would be friendly."

Canstancia said, "Next you will be telling me there are cannibals down there."

"There are some one hundred forty indigenous Indian tribes who have never seen a white man. What do you think the chances are that at least one clan would favor human meat?

"The Amajuacas near the Peruvian border have been converted to Christianity several times over, yet they still murder and eat the evangelists. The Cashibos eat their aged parents, but perhaps more from religious sentiment than from cruelty. It is the practice of the Ukayali to eat their dead relations and swallow the ground-up bones in fermented drinks, on the premise that it is better to be inside a warm friend than buried in the cold earth. Worse things have been said about the"

Tunnels of the DeepBook Two of the Star Walkers Trilogy
by Michael Cole
ISBN-10: 1-936154-88-9
ISBN-13: 978-1-936154-88-3
Second Edition 2012

About this Book

A professor of South American history, down on his luck, has been hired to lead an expedition into an uncharted part of the Amazon to find a hoard of silver.

Little does he know life is about to throw him a curve for it's not only the silver his employer is after.

Once Dr. Eric Shade discovers his employer's true motives, he and Canstancia Caetano must flee for their lives. But where to run?

The two enter a labyrinth of tunnels, but instead of finding the river, which is their only means of escape, one of the tunnels leads them to a strange, exotic worlda world that was only supposed to exist in the pastor is it the future?

A Review

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Tunnels of the Deep, by Michael Cole, is the second novel in a series about Dr. Eric Shade and his interest in the Star Walkers. Most people stay clear of the uncharted regions of Amazon and its perils, yet much like a nail is to a magnet, Shade is attracted to the lure of ancient lost cities, Inca gold, and the age-old legend of the Star Walkers, a mysterious group of pale-skinned people the Indians claim are gods. Having served a stint with the Special Forces, Shade has learned to survive in the maleficent environment of the jungle, but even his skills as a tracker and guide are tested when he agrees to go into the depths of the Amazon to retrieve a hoard of silver.

On his quest for the silver, Shade and a beautiful woman companion enter a labyrinth of tunnels that leads them to a fabulous ancient city, a city that has eluded archeologists for centuries. There they meet two Indians who take them through a hidden passageway to a utopian village where a tribe of mysterious people live. During their stay, they convince Shade that the Star Walkers are more than just a myth. According to the natives, the Star Walkers had befriended their ancestors thousands of years ago. Although these Indians don't know where the Star Walkers had come from, they claim a group of pale-skinned men descended upon their ancestors in shimmering ships that supposedly had come from the sky. Shade is hard pressed to believe that part of the story, but one thing becomes abundantly clear. Someone had to have taught these natives how to travel through tunnels in total darkness and how to concoct potions and elixirs that contain superhuman powers.

The more time Shade spends in the fabulous ancient city of Akakor and the longer he stays with the tribe, the more he begins to suspect that the early Indians were not as primitive as he had been led to believe. How did the pre-Incas manage to acquire their high awareness of astronomy and the use of complicated mathematics to build their fabulous pyramids and temples? Shade sets out to provide some answers to such questions; however, his goal is complicated by the betrayal of the man who had hired him to find the silver.

The author manages to tickle the reader's fancy by continuously placing Shade and his female companion in precarious, life-threatening situations. As a reader, one can easily find himself becoming engrossed in the tale. Cole weaves factual information into the story in such a way as to make the implausible appear conceivable. Once the incredible becomes believable, the gap between an age-old legend and the truth narrows considerably.

While the Star Walkers is a trilogy, each book stands alone with a satisfying conclusion.

Tunnels of the Deep was published by Foremost Press. It can be ordered through local bookstores and at ForemostPress.com, and at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.com.
ISBN 10: 1-936154-88-9
ISBN-13: 978-1-936154-88-3
228 pp, $13.97